With a little help from thier friends...I have the game on TIVO and have whatched the end several times.
New York Giants are the 5th-most penalized team in the NFL, yet for over 32 minutes committed no penalties, and only two, a delay of game and an illegal batting for over 45 minutes.
They got away with blows to Tom Brady’s head (Kawika Mitchell), illegal contact on receivers numerous times (the most obvious being Sam Madison on a key 3rd down play on Wes Welker, pass interference on the same play (Madison had his right arm firmly placed around Welker’s neck before the ball arrived).
The play that set up the winning touchdown was a blatant pick play allowing Steve Smith to run free for 10 yards before any Patriot player came into camera view. Any one of those penalties alters the entire tenor of Super Bowl XLII.
But there was more.
On what was, by all rights, the game-winning drive, Randy Moss caught a 10-yard pass on the left sideline and was tackled in bounds. Somehow the side judge ruled him out of bounds and stopped the clock. The Giants gained 35 seconds on the play and as a result began their final drive with 2:45 left on the clock instead of 2:15.
Amani Toomer caught a nine yard pass from Eli Manning and was well short of the first down marker. The Giants begged for a measurement in order to stop the clock. Rather than perform like any competent crew chief and show Manning with his hands how short the Giants were and start the clock, forcing New York to run valuable seconds off the game clock or waste a time out, crew chief Mike Carey awarded the Giants with what amounted to a timeout. As it was, there should have been only: 59 remaining in the game.
Brandon Jacobs, on the next play, ran for just over two feet to get the first down. The clock stopped at 1:22. Instead of marking the ball, signaling a first down and starting the clock, Carey stopped the clock, put six seconds back on the clock (1:28) and did not resume time until the Giants were at the line of scrimmage and ready to run their next play.
Carey signals to start the clock but the clock never starts, the ball is snapped, Manning was forced to scramble, was tackled, whith no time comeing off the clock. the clock suddenly jumps ahead to 1:15. Manning then called a timeout with. But once the Giants brack the huddle the clock is back to 1:20 with no explanation.
The “mistakes” added valuable seconds to the game clock and afforded New York an additional 20 precious seconds. On the following play New York ran three plays without calling a timeout and huddling twice in 31 seconds. There should have been 25 seconds left in the game. Next was a five second incompletion - 20 seconds left. David Tyree then made his miracle catch to the New England 24 yard line. Sixteen seconds elapsed on that play in which Manning was in the grasp of a Patriots defensive lineman who was being held by number 60 (O’Hara) no penalty was called), scrambled and threw a duck downfield. There should have been four seconds left in the game, but there were :59 remaining.
Beyond the New York Giants valiant defensive effort, the above “mistakes” and “missed” penalty calls, more than anything else cost the New England Patriots a perfect season. And even if you challenge the penalties (I saw two missed calls where Patriots players should have been flagged), the referee-induced clock mismanagement was there for all the world to see.
But in the end...Make a GD stop Defense.
